Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Jersey Breakthrough

Could last week’s visit to Jersey by a FIFA delegation be the first step towards playing the Channel Island playing international football?

The trip to the island was led by Geoff Thompson, formerly chairman of the Football Association, but more latterly a vice president of both FIFA and UEFA. In tow was Urs Kluser, development director for FIFA’s grandly titled member associations and development division.

“They were extremely positive about what they found in Jersey,” Ricky Weir, president of the Jersey Football Association (JFA), told WSC. “Of course nothing is guaranteed but I do believe there is now a genuine recognition and understanding of the international void we find ourselves in.”

Jersey has a population of 87,400 – roughly double that of FIFA members Andorra, the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein and San Marino – but as a British Crown Dependency is not eligible for FIFA.

Not because of FIFA’s regulations, which simply require recognition by the undefined ‘international community’ but because the JFA needs to get into UEFA first. The European body has far tighter membership criteria. Potential entrants must be members of the United Nations – a rule designed to keep out Gibraltar and appease Spain. As a result, Jersey is on the international touchlines along with the likes of Guadeloupe and Kosovo.

What makes FIFA’s visit to St Helier interesting is that firstly, FIFA finally seems to have accepted that a grey area exists between regional and international football and, secondly, that Jersey has successfully promoted itself into this limbo zone.

Not content with the football tournament at the Island Games – a sort of mini-Olympiad for islands – in 2008 Jersey staged a three-way tournament with two other rejects, Gibraltar and Madeira, and plan another tournament with Guernsey.
Guernsey are looking to field a club side in a UK-league but under Weir, who was born in Coatbridge and played internationals for the British Virgin Islands before moving to St Helier, Jersey will not let the idea of international football drop.

Weir has been in contact with UEFA president Michel Platini but enticing an official FIFA delegation is the JFA’s biggest success to date. After returning home, Kulser told the JFA: “As discussed in our meetings, we will do what we can to further the question of the Jersey FA within the international football family.”
Kulser’s working party has also visited an unidentified Asian region and another in CONCACAF.

In response to WSC’s questions, FIFA said: “Geoff Thompson and Urs Kluser’s visit was as part of working group chaired by Mr Thompson to look at the issues faced by small nations and territories, such as Jersey, not currently recognized internationally. The key purpose of their visit was to: understand the football organisation within the island; understand the current island situation with regard to football development; [and] understand the relationship with and support currently received from The FA.”

FIFA said the other places included in Kr Kulser’s could not be “clarified” until later this week but one place in CONCACAF that is also stuck in international limbo is Guadeloupe.

As a French department, Guadeloupe is not eligible for FIFA and the island’s footballers traditionally aspired to play for Les Bleus. Players like Marius Tresor and Lilian Thuram did so with success but that all changed in 2007, when Jocelyn Angloma, a veteran of Euro 92 and 96, accepted that his French international days were gone and returned home.

Led by Angloma, Guadeloupe reached the semi-finals of the 2007 Gold Cup (the North and Central American regional championship) where they were edged out 1-0 by Mexico. Angloma had retired by the time of the next Gold Cup in 2009 but the Gwada Boys still made the quarter finals.

Alain Soreze from the Ligue Guadeloupeenne de Football confirmed to WSC that the LGF had heard nothing about a visit from FIFA but without something greater to play for than the Gold Cup, Guadeloupe’s flourishing football scene will wither, as will the hamstrung game in Kosovo.

Dozens of countries recognise that Kosovo is a country. Sadly, the Serbs and Russia do not, forcing the likes of Lorik Cana and Valon Behrami into adopting other countries to play internationals.

Bournemouth’s St Helier-born striker Brett Pittman might not seem to be in the same bracket, but with FIFA showing signs of wanting to solve the dilemmas that a combination of politics and football generate, an international call-up could soon be on the way.

This blog is about those footballing nations not recognised by FIFA. I've written about them in my book, "Outcasts! The Lands That FIFA Forgot", which was shortlisted for NSC football book of the year award in the 2008 and is published by Know The Score Books.

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With forewords by Adrian Chiles and David Conn."Outcasts! The Lands That FIFA Forgot" examines the much tarnished reputation of FIFA, the governing body of world football, and just how they justify the exclusion of some 'nations' while welcoming others - either for reasons of political expediency, or because FIFA just believed they could not compete with the likes of Montserrat on the world stage.

REVIEWS FOR OUTCASTSOutcasts! is a must-read for all football fans - Sporting Life

Excellent - Scotland on Sunday

Menary is an enthusiast with a talent for getting the best out of his interviewees and a keen eye for the encapsulating episode - Daily Telegraph

As good as it gets - Birmingham Post

Buy this - The Times

Lively, informative - The Independent on Sunday

Thought provoking questions about the nature of national identity - Four Four Two

One book that might intrigue the discerning reader - Sunday Telegraph

Menary is an admirably sure-footed guide ... he never loses sight of the human stories ... a gentle meditation not merely on the power of football, but also on what it means to be a country - Jonathan Wilson

BY THE SAME AUTHORGB United? British Olympic Football and the end of the amateur dream (Pitch 2010)

Menary does an outstanding job. GB United? is a historical tome telling a story that has been forgotten and overlooked elsewhere. This story is as much about a class struggle in twentieth century Britain as anything else, but in this case it was a struggle that the ruling class were always going to lose.Those that ran the game at the start of the twentieth century may well look at modern football and wonder what on earth it has become, but GB United? tells a part of the story that is seldom looked at elsewhere with a keen eye for historical detail, a dry sense of humour and a mixture of disdain and respect for those that ended up shaping many of the paths that modern football would end up taking - Twohundredpercent

Exemplary research, grasp of his material and eye for a quirky fact keep up the interest - Independent on Sunday

Menary carefully explains how amateurism or 'shamateurism' gradually became unacceptable in this country, with everyone being declared just 'players' in 1974.He recounts not only the sad decline of Vivian Woodward, a superb centre-forward and a member of the British team in 1908 and 1912, but also the exploits of Pegasus, who galvanised the amateur game in the early 1950s. It is a valuable contribution to football literature - The Olympian